So comparing MMORPG launches, which I all experienced firsthand, is comparing apples to oranges? If that's the case, then what is comparing a game released in 2002 with a game released in 2010? Okay, they were made by the same company and are based on similar principles. Yet, the game in 2010 is as incomplete in it's initial as the game that was released in 2002...and that's acceptable? I don't have to have firsthand experience of FFXI's initial Japanese launch to know that if you have some really great features in a game that you created more than 8 years ago, that people are going to expect that you incorporate a lot of those same features in the new game you've just released; especially when those two games are based on some of the same fundamental principles. It's called common sense. When you go to buy a car made in 2010, do you expect it to have power steering, A/C, and an AM/FM radio? I sure as hell do, even though none of these things are at all necessary for the car to drive from point A to point B; it only makes that task a little easier and more comfortable. If, as a company, you can't take some of the more iconic and basic user-friendly features of your old game, i.e. auction house, search function, streamlined menu-based UI, then you have some serious problems with your development staff. This is called building upon the past, something which almost every other developer in the MMO genre understands. Hell most of them even incorporate things that work from OTHER DEVELOPERS, not just from their own games. It's not like FFXIV is supposed to be a radical departure from FFXI.
Contrary to what you may think, comparing the launch of FFXIV to the launch of Warhammer Online is not comparing apples to oranges. Like I mentioned before, they both suffer from some of the same symptoms. Now with Warhammer, Mythic was slow to respond and correct a lot of these problems and it cost them dearly. After the first 30-60 days of Warhammer's release, people began leaving the game in droves and the negative word-of-mouth marketing made people hesitant to fork over the initial $50 plus an additional $15 if they wanted to continue to play a game that may, or may not, be around for very long. This issue is compounded when these same people have other MMOs that they can go play or even old MMOs where they have a significant time and emotional investment in characters they've already built up and friends they've already made there. Because Warhammer could not sustain the kind of subscription numbers it needed to recoup development costs, much less develop new content, the game has been on virtual life support ever since. This is where your short-sided thinking breaks down. If SE cannot attract a significant player base, it's not going to have the revenue stream needed to develop all of this content that you seem to assume is going to be added to the game. I would be willing to bet my salary on the fact that, right now, FFXIV is operating in the red since it usually takes several months before initial box sales and monthly subscriptions can reach the break-even point of development costs, much less pay for the day-to-day maintenance overhead costs. If you can't accept this reality and cannot accept the fact that the NA reception of FFXIV has been lukewarm, at best, then you might as well walk out your door and bury your head in the sand. And make no mistake, SE absolutely needs that disposable North American income to make FFXIV economically sustainable.
Now, I agree that a person shouldn't generally base a decision on what others have said. This is why I agree with Elemmire's argument in other threads that all MMOs should come with 10-14 day free trials. This would force developers to release much more polished products off the bat in order to generate sustain interest in a game. I would even be willing to pay a $20-25/mo subscription to offset the loss of revenue on initial box sales to support such a model. But since this ideal is not yet a reality we have to rely a lot on hype and hearsay as gamers when it comes purchases. That being said, when you see a wide variety of people from very diverse areas all have some of the same complaints and issues with a game, then you know there is some kind of fundamental problem which is causing these complaints. Also, if you have some very close friends who know your tastes, and probably have similar tastes, and they can give you some very reasonable explanations as to why you may or may not like something, then I think it's reasonable to take their advice under serious consideration. Again, this is something you fail to acknowledge. It's not that people are taking to the streets and saying, "OMG FFXIV SUXORS!" and leaving it at that. No, A LOT of people are giving very SPECIFIC reasons as to why they consider the game to be lackluster. Once again, a number of these reasons go back to fundamental design principlesm, which aren't changing anytime soon, and basic features which are missing, which should have been included ESPECIALLY given that SE already has a fairly successful MMO which has been on the market for the better part of a DECADE. I would be much more forgiving of this game if it were either SE's first foray into the MMO genre or if it were still 2003.
